Now, with Mind Bullets!

Explore the power of the mind with Dreamscarred Press!

Oct 3, 2012, 07:00 PM

Do you like the idea of brains over brawn, and mental might made real? Check out an exciting project from Dreamscarred Press!

Whisper the word "psionics" and you'll get either love or hate. Dreamscarred Press has been ignoring the haters for years, putting out high-quality psionics supplements for 3.5 as well as for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game! We can barely keep Psionics Unleashed in stock, and Psionics Expanded: Advanced Psionics Guide is ready for hungry gamers everywhere...but have you heard about Ultimate Psionics? That's right, one gigantic hardcover to compile all of the quality material available in Psionics Unleashed as well as Psionics Expanded, but the mental masters at Dreamscarred have more that just smashing the books together planned. They're reorganizing, updating, and adding material that you can only get in Ultimate Psionics—and with every stretch goal met, this book gets beefier than a half-orc with bull's strength and is over 400 pages long! Also, with your pledge, you can start adding in perks like a psionic focus token, a poster featuring the cover art done by Wayne Reynolds, dice, GM screens, introductory adventures, item cards, additional copies for your game group, pitch something to include in Ultimate Psionics, or get a picture of your character illustrated in the book!

Check out Dreamscarred Press's Kickstarter here, as well as all of their products here on Paizo.com!

And for those who haven't been following its dedicated thread, the KS just passed its $36k stretch goal and is headed toward the $40k stretch goal - to have a Medium-style psionic class supplement written and published next year! So, all you psionics fans out there, how badly do you want to speak with the dead?

(An additional note - Jeremy just posted a backer-only update today previewing the Forgeborn race that is one of the things this Kickstarter has added to the collection of things going into Ultimate Psionics, so you all may want to check that out.)

I've backed this and I might break my no 3PP rule someday when Paizo finally decides what it is going to do with Psionics. I'm just waiting for the separate Psionics Expanded: Advanced Psionics Guide,then the Ultimate Psionics book when that is done.

It was my impression that Paizo had felt that the dreamscarred stuff was as good as it got and were not going to do a psionics book as a result.

No, it's more that:

a) they have a lot of other projects and psionics is low on their list
b) they will likely not be doing a power-point system
c) the demand for it is lower because we've got Psionics Unleashed out, so it knocks it down a bit further in priority

They've only ceded us the territory insofar as they're not ready to tread down it yet.

Whether they have anything planned for 2013 or 2014, I don't know, but we've had over 2 years of being the primary source of psionics for Pathfinder and we certainly don't mind filling that vacuum. :)

Basically what it boils down to is we contacted Wayne before the project about if he'd be interested in doing the cover art should we be able to afford it, went over the possible details / timelines / rates, and then I jumped the gun with attaching his name to the project before we had come to a firm agreement on the specifics.

Wayne's a stand-up guy and we're working through the details now and it was a total miscommunication mistake on my part that is being resolved.

Basically what it boils down to is we contacted Wayne before the project about if he'd be interested in doing the cover art should we be able to afford it, went over the possible details / timelines / rates, and then I jumped the gun with attaching his name to the project before we had come to a firm agreement on the specifics.

Wayne's a stand-up guy and we're working through the details now and it was a total miscommunication mistake on my part that is being resolved.

Basically what it boils down to is we contacted Wayne before the project about if he'd be interested in doing the cover art should we be able to afford it, went over the possible details / timelines / rates, and then I jumped the gun with attaching his name to the project before we had come to a firm agreement on the specifics.

Wayne's a stand-up guy and we're working through the details now and it was a total miscommunication mistake on my part that is being resolved.

These things happen. I'm glad you're working it out!

Fortunately, the misunderstanding has been cleared up to ensure my provisional involvement to the project.

Basically what it boils down to is we contacted Wayne before the project about if he'd be interested in doing the cover art should we be able to afford it, went over the possible details / timelines / rates, and then I jumped the gun with attaching his name to the project before we had come to a firm agreement on the specifics.

Wayne's a stand-up guy and we're working through the details now and it was a total miscommunication mistake on my part that is being resolved.

These things happen. I'm glad you're working it out!

Fortunately, the misunderstanding has been cleared up to ensure my provisional involvement to the project.

I tip my hat to Paizo for posting this up, Paizo stole my attention from WotC with Pathfinder, (Not to mention I hold a dislike for 4e), and they continue to show their worth more than their Wotc rival.

...I am just waiting to see if or when Paizo offers up their own rules for Psionics before I allow this stuff to introduced into any of my games.

I imagine that somewhere on Paizo's To-Do list, psionics will be eventually be re-imagined Paizo-style if for no other reason than to support Lashunta/Castrovel and Vudra adventures. When that happens, I will treat Paizo and Dreamscarred psionics as two forks of the psionics tree... like the coexistance of Buddhism and Hinduism, or the various schools of martial arts, or distros of Linux, or whatever metaphor seems most applicable. Both are/will be balanced for the Pathfinder mechanics and against the non-psionics classes, so whichever you wish to play is fine with me.

And really, Ultimate Psionics should spur additional sales of the various Paizo corebooks, modules, and adventure paths too, so win-win all around.

...I am just waiting to see if or when Paizo offers up their own rules for Psionics before I allow this stuff to introduced into any of my games.

I imagine that somewhere on Paizo's To-Do list, psionics will be eventually be re-imagined Paizo-style if for no other reason than to support Lashunta/Castrovel and Vudra adventures. When that happens, I will treat Paizo and Dreamscarred psionics as two forks of the psionics tree... like the coexistance of Buddhism and Hinduism, or the various schools of martial arts, or distros of Linux, or whatever metaphor seems most applicable. Both are/will be balanced for the Pathfinder mechanics and against the non-psionics classes, so whichever you wish to play is fine with me.

And really, Ultimate Psionics should spur additional sales of the various Paizo corebooks, modules, and adventure paths too, so win-win all around.

This is exactly how I view it. And honestly, I might reflavor Paizo psionics as something else - in my heart, DSP is psionics. What I hope, despite the fact that it won't ever happen, is some form of official backing of DSP's stuff by Paizo as the psionics. And then maybe even some collaboration.

It WAS classy for Paizo to make a post for DSP's ultimate project for a Psionics Core Book. I always had a feeling that the initial reason Paizo did nothing with Psionics was because it was lower on the list than refining classes, reintroducing monstrs, giving us insights of Golarion and its cultures and races with adventure paths, supplements, and the like...

But I knew, since Dreamscarred made a cornerstone for Psionics, my thoughts on why Paizo hasn't... is because they technically don't need to, anymore. DSP has done that for them, and they know that Paizo customers buy these books, as well. Hence why Paizo is acknowledging their efforts like this.

I just wish I pledged, but I can wait for the books to be listed here (I hope).

We'll never have "Flayers of the Mind", but that's why we've got Phrenic Scourges to make up for that.